ward, he recalls, a broadcaster rushed over and
told him he had “really ticked off a lot of veter-
ans. They’re throwing their shoes at the TV. They
feel you should be deported.” In an America torn
apart by the Vietnam War and racial discord, his
nontraditional rendition sparked both applause
and outrage. But his meteoric rise stalled. Many
deejays stopped playing his records. “My career
was dead,” he says.
But the 74-year-old music icon refused to give
up—and resuscitated his career for the first of
many times over half a century. “I don’t want
to sound like sour grapes, but there are some
grapes in my life that are sour,” he says from his
cozy home in Connecticut. “I feel that because of
what happened to me, I’ve been underrated.” He
took up touring internationally, and two years
after that fateful performance he rebounded
with his Christmastime classic “Feliz Navidad.”
And now he’s in the midst of a new resurgence.
His version of the Mamas and the Papas’ “Cali-
fornia Dreamin’ ” appeared in the Oscar-nom-
inated film Once upon a Time... in Hollywood,
one of the most-streamed songs on the film’s
soundtrack. Last month he released his 56th stu-
dio album, Behind This Guitar, and he continues
to tour the world. His contributions to music will
be showcased in José Feliciano: Behind This Gui-
tar, a documentary making its world premiere
on March 18 at the SXSW Festival in Austin. “I
say to myself, ‘José, that’s the business,’ ” he says.
“Let’s hope they don’t underrate me anymore,
and they realize the musician that I am and that
I didn’t take any shortcuts.”Feliciano has been facing down challenges since
the day he was born blind from glaucoma, a
disease that damages the optic nerve. When
he was 5, his family moved from Puerto Rico to
Spanish Harlem, where his aunt’s friend bought
him his first guitar for $10 from a pawn shop. He
listened to the radio and practiced relentlessly.
“When I saw the other jobs that were available
to blind kids, I said, ‘I don’t want those jobs.
Those are menial jobs. I can do better than that
if I push myself in music,’ ” he says. Influenced
by Ray Charles and Spanish guitarist Andrés
Segovia, he was determined to be successful.
“The only obstacle I’ve had are sighted people,”
he says. In 1963, at age 18, he was discovered
while performing at the Manhattan counter-
culture hot spot Gerde’s Folk City. Despite his
anthem controversy, he won his first two of
seven Grammys for Best New Artist and Best
Male Pop Vocal Performance on March 12,On Oct. 7, 1968, José Feliciano was living a
musician’s dream. His Latin-flavored versions
of “California Dreamin’ ” and “Light My Fire”
were flooding the airwaves, and his new single
“Hi-Heel Sneakers” was climbing the charts. Who
would’ve thought a blind Puerto Rican guitarist
from New York City’s Spanish Harlem would be
invited to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” at
the World Series? In front of more than 53,000
baseball fans gathered in Detroit to watch the
Tigers play the St. Louis Cardinals in Game
5, the 23-year-old performed a soulful, Latin-
jazz-influenced version of the national anthem.
But things quickly took a disturbing turn. After-56 March 2, 2020
Soulful
Troubadour
“I write about my
feelings,” says Feliciano
(in the 1960s), who has
recorded more
than 50 albums.A Home Run
Fifty years later he was
invited back to perform
his original version.
“It was surreal,” says
his son Jonathan José.
“They were all happy
to see Pop.”A Full-Circle
JourneyGame Changer
In 1968 Feliciano had
no idea his Latin-styled
national anthem would
hurt his career. He had
practiced a version
“more radical than the
one I did,” he says.Music Man
He has been
nominated for
16 Grammys
and won 7, which
are displayed
throughout
his home in
Connecticut.Proud Papa
Feliciano with (from
left) wife Susan and
kids Jonathan José,
Melissa and Mikey.
“It’s never a dull
moment,” Mikey
says of growing up
with a famous dad.